Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the modeling of building occupant behavior.
Description of the Related Art
Buildings consume vast amounts of energy. Some estimate that they account for 72% of electricity use in the US. It has been suggested that appropriate design improvements, selected with the aid of decision-support software, could reduce energy use by about 30% in existing buildings and 50% to 75% in new buildings. This is the motivation for building performance simulation. The idea is to model a building's many interacting subsystems, including its occupants, electrical equipment, and indoor and outdoor climate. With simulation results in hand, an architect is better able to predict the energy demand associated with various designs and can choose from among the more sustainable options.
A building's energy consumption patterns depend largely on the behavior of the people that occupy it, a fact observed by comparing the timing of daily activities with profiles of energy use. Many existing building performance simulation tools use fixed schedules to account for the presence of occupants but such schedules do not yield realistic results.
As the foregoing illustrates, there is a need in the art for a more detailed and realistic occupancy models for accurate energy demand predictions.